Scripture, and these three successively emerge in the consciousness
of the Early Church.

It was, first, a fact affecting Him, a testimony concerning Him,
carrying with it necessarily some great truths with regard to Him,
His character, His nature, and His work. And it was in that aspect
mainly that the earliest preachers dealt with it. Then, as reflection
and the guidance of God's good Spirit led them to understand more and
more of the treasure which lay in the fact, it came to be to them,
next, a pattern, and a pledge, and a prophecy of their own
resurrection. The doctrine of man's immortality and the future life
was evolved from it, and was felt to be implied in it. And then it
came to be, thirdly and lastly, a symbol or figure of the spiritual
resurrection and newness of life into which all they were born who
participated in His death. They knew Him first by His Resurrection;
they then knew 'the power of His Resurrection' as a pledge of their
own; and lastly, they knew it as being the pattern to which they were
to be conformed even whilst here on earth.

The words which I have read for my text are the Apostle Peter's own
description of what was the office of an Apostle--'to be a witness
with us of Christ's Resurrection.' And the statement branches out, I
think, into three considerations, to which I ask your attention now.
First, we have here the witnesses; secondly, we have the sufficiency
of their testimony; and thirdly, we have the importance of the fact
to which they bear their witness. The Apostles are testimony-bearers.
Their witness is enough to establish the fact. The fact to which they
witness is all-important for the religion and the hopes of the world.

I. First, then, the Witnesses.